DAP takes Rahman’s condo delivery extension issue to MACC

BUTTERWORTH: Two Penang DAP men lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today alleging that a federal minister had abused his powers by granting an extension for a condominium project in Kuala Lumpur.

Batu Kawan DAP’s Satees Muniandy and P David Marshel lodged the report against former urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan at the state MACC office here today.

The report lodged with the anti-graft agency this morning comes days after the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled against a developer, BHL Construction Sdn Bhd, over a 12-month extension which had been approved by Rahman in 2015, while he held the cabinet portfolio.

The extension resulted in 104 house buyers being unable to claim compensation from the developer for not meeting the targeted completion date of their condos in Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuala Lumpur.

Rahman is currently a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, responsible for the Economic Planing Unit.

“His actions are tantamount to misappropriation and misuse of powers as a housing and local government minister,” Satees and David had declared in their report filed with the MACC.

P David Marshel (left) and Satees Muniandy (right).

The DAP duo also alleged that a woman who claimed to be a director of BHL had lobbied for the extension although she is supposedly not part of the company.

“Despite having all the resources to verify the woman’s position in the said company, he had not done so.

“Hence, Rahman had purposely misused his powers as a minister to write letters to allow an extension of the said condominium project,” Satees and David said in their report.

The men also provided Companies’ Commission of Malaysia (formerly known as ROC) details listing the names of BHL Construction’s directors to reporters present to prove that the woman who had written the appeal was not a director of the company.

The men had also lodged separate police reports on the matter at the Bandar Perda police station on Feb 28. Police have confirmed receiving their reports.

Meanwhile, Rahman denied claims of power abuse, saying he had acted according to the powers vested in him as the minister in charge of housing matters at the time.

He said the developer had been given the extension after strict checks that took into account the circumstances, construction materials, natural disasters and worker issues.

Rahman said as minister he was duty-bound to avoid the possibility of housing projects being abandoned just because extensions to developers were rejected.

He said house buyers, too, would be in a “worse off” position if housing projects were abandoned.

He also accused DAP of making a “highly defamatory conclusion” that he had abused his powers.

FMT has contacted Penang MACC chief Abd Aziz Aban for comment and is awaiting his reply.